[Big Ed]

I am trying to hide this corner of the layout.
Got to hide the ugly gas pipe and meter.
That corner of the layout I built to pull out with just two screws on the section and two pieces of track unhooked. I have to plan that corner that way.
Just in case they ever have to work on the meter.

So, I am building THE ROCK.

My main problem on this section is the gas meter. I have to leave access so I am making THE ROCK so I can take it off the layout if I need to.

The corner.
(one of these years the lower right will run the main line over to the other side of my dungeon.)

I had to make some sort of base. So I got some old packing foam and glued some heavy cardboard to it.

I was thinking about the beacon here (higher up) but I think I will put a ranger lookout up there. Somehow.
Has anyone ever seen an O gauge lookout range tower?
Though I might go HO to give it a little far away look up there.

THE ROCK back in the "dinosaur" days used to be one big water fall.
Through out the years the water ground the rock away. I used plaster cloth to get the water worn out look.
This part here will be whats left of the waterfalls.

I got to make sure the bigger trains can get around the curve near THE ROCK.

THE ROCK is getting bigger.
What you see of the pipe and meter will be addressed with another rocky structure made for quick disconnect. Separate from THE ROCK.

Adding a tunnel over here. I Got some old ceiling tiles cut for above the tunnel.
This section needs a lot of work yet. Same for the base of THE ROCK.

There is going to be a road running up THE ROCK back in that corner too. edit, no road going in it would be too steep and the only thing that could navigate up it, would have been some mountain goats!:laugh:

Got to paint the wall or add a back drop scene. I don't think I could paint one. But I do think I am going to try to paint something on the wall around the mountain.


It sure would be a lot easier if I could have attached it to the wall.

 

[Big Ed]

One more of THE ROCK in place.
I forgot to add to the above post.

 

[T-Man]

OOOOHHHHH!

BIG ROCK!



Me hunt. Find Big Dinosaur there!




:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::laugh:

 

[Stillakid]

big ed, make big rock, ugh!
Nice work big ed! And here I thought, that all you could do was buy trains LOL!!!!

 

[tjcruiser]

Ed,

I'm amazed at seeing how simple that started (just scraps bits of packing styrofoam), and yet impressed with how convincing the rocky cliff face is turning out. Very nice ... very nice, indeed!

(Do they read your gas meter inside, or is it pinged with a truck driving down the street?)

Cheers,

TJ

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

That looks pretty cool! I'll have to learn to do that for my layout.

If they haven't come in in the last year or so, they have remote reading. Hard to tell from your picture of the meter, but I'm guessing from the bulk it's remote.

 

[Big Ed]

Ed,

I'm amazed at seeing how simple that started (just scraps bits of packing styrofoam), and yet impressed with how convincing the rocky cliff face is turning out. Very nice ... very nice, indeed!

(Do they read your gas meter inside, or is it pinged with a truck driving down the street?)

Cheers,

TJ

Whole bunch of crumpled up news paper behind the plaster cloth along with the foam too.

If I want to pay a $100 installation fee they could read the meter from the outside.
Screw them, they ought to do it for free as it's to their convenience!
I pay them enough per year now!

But like I said I am building that whole section to come out in case they ever have to work on the line. THE ROCK I can pick up and move. That table section two screws and unhook two tracks and I can pull the table out of the way. The future extension running over to the other side has to be done in the same way at least around the meter.
And around the feed pipe and meter I am going to construct LITTLE ROCK JR.
Underneath the bottom of the falls will be a swimming hole or river.

THE ROCK you see now is only in the first phase.
The next phase will hopefully make the rocks pop out.


Next step is to find my bag of sculptamold and give a good coat of plaster.

The paint is whats really going to make those rocks pop out. But thats a ways off.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

How do you make the sections easily movable? I'm doing a U shaped platform, and I'd like to be able to move pieces of it, since it's going to be too big to move the whole thing. I'd like to make it somewhat simple, but I still have to have track going across. Do you just count on alignment of the sections without track pins, or do you just make sure the track ends right at the break?

 

[Reckers]

Ed, that looks great! It's nice to see you getting into terraforming!

 

[Big Ed]

How do you make the sections easily movable? I'm doing a U shaped platform, and I'd like to be able to move pieces of it, since it's going to be too big to move the whole thing. I'd like to make it somewhat simple, but I still have to have track going across. Do you just count on alignment of the sections without track pins, or do you just make sure the track ends right at the break?

Right now where my round house is is a 8'x8' section. What you see where THE ROCK is 4'x 5' 6".
It is just a separate table which just sits in place tight with no kind of help.

The only reason I have two screws holding it, is for the little section I added on to fit the bigger curves so I can run my big stuff on the main line.
See picture of the unpainted wood. The track just happened to separate at the table.
After I remove my desk and a few more items I can undo the screws and walk the table out. I hope I never have to but I have to plan in case I do.
The rail going to the other side of the basement coming off that part will have to be detachable too. The first 4' at least.

How big of a space are you talking about?

 

[Big Ed]

Ed, that looks great! It's nice to see you getting into terraforming!

The KING of S lives!

Where have you been?

Did you find a new place to build your layout?

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm talking about a "U" shaped table, I'm thinking the legs of the "U" will be about 5' to 6' wide and 8' long, the bottom of the "U" will be about 2 feet to allow a couple of tracks to go between the sections. I want to have it so I can reach any part of it without moving it from the wall, so I'll have access to three sides, just not the back of the "U" that's against the wall. The width of the two legs is really determined by my requirement to fairly easily reach things to work on them, I figure three feet from an edge is probably all I could manage, I'm not that tall!

I'm thinking one side will be the "city" with buildings, the trolley, etc. The other side will be for "industry" and will have a couple of sidings to store trains, and operating pieces like the log loader and barrel loader, etc.

I'd also like to have at least one suspended track, maybe the trolley, and have it going over the other tracks.

 

[Big Ed]

I'm talking about a "U" shaped table, I'm thinking the legs of the "U" will be about 5' to 6' wide and 8' long, the bottom of the "U" will be about 2 feet to allow a couple of tracks to go between the sections. I want to have it so I can reach any part of it without moving it from the wall, so I'll have access to three sides, just not the back of the "U" that's against the wall. The width of the two legs is really determined by my requirement to fairly easily reach things to work on them, I figure three feet from an edge is probably all I could manage, I'm not that tall!

I'm thinking one side will be the "city" with buildings, the trolley, etc. The other side will be for "industry" and will have a couple of sidings to store trains, and operating pieces like the log loader and barrel loader, etc.

I'd also like to have at least one suspended track, maybe the trolley, and have it going over the other tracks.

Why do you want to build it so it comes apart then?


I have to or I wouldn't have planned it to come apart. I have no choice.

My ROCK and every thing I am doing in that corner has to come off fairly easy in case I have to get at the gas line.
Otherwise I would have secured my ROCK to the wall.
Which would have been a lot easier.

And I probably won't have to take it out in 30 years, unless I did all the work permanent.Then in 2 months I would have to.( Murphy/ Ed's law):laugh:

 

[Big Ed]

OOOOHHHHH!

BIG ROCK!



Me hunt. Find Big Dinosaur there!




:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::laugh:

I had the boys crawl through 3' of every toy they got in 17 years, in the old toy closet. Believe me when I say theres a lot more dino's in it somewhere.

A few of them. Notice the one with a remote? Still walks!:thumbsup: Probably siting in the closet for 13 years.
One of these years we are going to clean it out and sell them. Got a lot of old "collectible" toys in there!

For you T THE dinosaur ROCK.

And a big prehistoric mouse coming through the tunnel.
As right now it looks more like a giant mouse hole then a tunnel.:laugh:

 

[tjcruiser]

"The Land That Time Forgot!"

 

[Big Ed]

"The Land That Time Forgot!"

That is what the toy closet is!:laugh:

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I won't necessarily take it apart, but if I install it permanently, I'm 100% sure to have to get to something on that wall! There is wiring, outside plumbing, and heat-pump runs that are behind those walls, not to mention the sump pump plumbing.

I'm thinking of just making the two legs of the "U" all one piece, and just disconnect at the skinny section, which should be a lot easier.

 

[Big Ed]

I won't necessarily take it apart, but if I install it permanently, I'm 100% sure to have to get to something on that wall! There is wiring, outside plumbing, and heat-pump runs that are behind those walls, not to mention the sump pump plumbing.

I'm thinking of just making the two legs of the "U" all one piece, and just disconnect at the skinny section, which should be a lot easier.

It shouldn't be hard to plan the 2' piece to come out.

How about a 2' bridge that comes out?

But the rest is still on the wall. What about if you have to get behind it?

Can you put the 2' so it comes out and the 2 side U's on wheels?
That way you could wheel it out from the wall to get behind it.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

It's not going to be attached to the wall, the other sections will be free standing tables.

 

[Smokestack Lightning]

Ed. Why is your meter inside? I have been a gasfitter for years and have never seen that in a residential application. There should be a regulator with a bleed off on it. I hope that is outside.